Five to Inspire with Rob Surrency
UX Designer @ Formerly Fi — Fantasy.co
Who are you?
I’m Rob Surrency and I am a UX designer based in San Francisco. I have created digital product and brand experiences for companies like Google, Huawei, Adobe, Fantasy (Fi) and AKQA. I love helping people solve their most complex challenges with creative solutions. Solutions that result in intuitive experiences consisting of clean and detailed design.
I got my start in Philadelphia in 2006 as a UI/UX design intern working on business systems. At that time, I knew absolutely nothing and struggled. No formal design training, no experience, no understanding of the design process (and the list goes on). My boss told me, if he knew I was this bad, he wouldn’t have hired me. However, if it wasn’t for my mentors and a lot of late nights, I was able to scrap up enough decency to keep that job. A job which helped me establish a foundation and discover my passion for design.
Fast forward a bit to 2010 where I decided to pick up whatever belongings I had and blindly accept a job in San Francisco. After almost 7 years in the Bay Area, I have been lucky enough (and grateful) to have worked at some of the best companies in the industry (with a little teaching and mentoring on the side).
Outside of sitting at a desk, you can find me running, cycling, travelling, snapping a photo or hanging out. If you ever see me in-person or digitally, say hi! I’m always up to meet new faces.
What’s a typical day in the life of Robert?
On the weekdays, I’m usually working like a lot of people. Those days consist of coffee (a life requirement) and usually juggling time between designing and meetings. Afterwards, either working out or meeting up with friends.
The weekends are usually the time I get to unwind and relax. You can find me doing anything from being an absolute hermit to socializing and being active outside. Camping, hiking, running, cycling and basically doing whatever keeps me moving. I love what I do, but sitting at a desk all day, every day can get a little static and tiresome.
How would you define good design?
Good design to me has to do a lot with the fundamentals:
- Is it easy to use?
- Does it look visually appealing?
- Was it well executed?
But at the core of it and most importantly, does it solve the problem at hand to the point where you can be like, “Man, that’s awesome.” You can put all the work you want into an execution, but if there is no real thought behind the purpose, you missed the point.
Share something you’d really like to do — but haven’t done yet. What’s keeping you from doing it?
Good question. One of the things that I hope I can get around to is finish writing my article series on designers and mental health. I deal with depression and anxiety (ranges from mild to parallelizing) and over the years, have found ways to deal with it in constructive ways.
The series wouldn’t provide remedies. It would be more of letting people who are going through similar experiences know that they are not alone. And that it’s okay to speak up about it. Being open and speaking to others is key to having a healthy state of self and mind.
What’s keeping me from doing it? Ironically, when I write it, I get anxious and have to stop. That and outside of work, I’m really lazy with side projects.
How do you imagine your life as a designer ten years from now will be?
I have no idea. Our industry moves and changes so fast that anything that I were to guess now will be outdated in less than two years.
However, wherever the future takes us, I hope my work causes a dramatic impact improving people’s lives. Working alongside and leading a team of like-minded individuals (or owning a company) that likes to do great work while having a fucking blast doing it would be a amazing.
That and using the compensation of those initiatives to fuel all my other personal passions.
Maybe a balance of 50% work and 50% personal passions could be something to aim for. :)
People and/or designers that inspire you? (personally and professionally)
Claudio Guglieri (designer) is pretty much an awesome guy. Talented designer and one of the most down to earth people. —
Dave Hogue (ux) is another inspiring fellow and thought leader. One of the best (and smartest) people to work under and was a huge part of my first Bay Area life experiences. —
Sal Nistico (designer) and Tony Daddario (ux) were my some of my first mentors that pointed me in the right direction whether or not they believe me. Sal and Tony are some of the best designers in the industry and taught me literally everything I needed to know starting out.
Where can we find Rob Surrency?
Portfolio: http://www.rsurrency.com
Email: hello@rsurrency.com
Company: Currently freelancing. Most recently coming from Fantasy (formerly Fi — fantasy.co)
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsurrency
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/robsurrency
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robsurrency
